The current japanese economic dystopia is so disappointing. What happened to the 80's? The glorious dystopian visions, the likes of Dominion or Akira? All mangaka can come up with is "I woke up and I wasn't here".
Like, grow a pair and try something bold. Drop some asteroids, flood Sagami Bay like YKK, have youkai blow up some reactors like Arjuna... just do SOMETHING besides more frigging isekai.
I mean, every medium has its generic genre designed to sell to without rocking the boat too much, with the subverting that being the only ones anyone remembers. Shield Hero will probably be the only isekai people remember in the next decade for being the opposite of escapist fantasy (at first).
The same way everyone remembers Evangelion, but not forgotten mecha like Rahxephon or Eureka Seven.
Memes are not as long lasting as you'd think. Ask Haruhi who went from a billion dollar IP to completely dead over in a few years.
Or for a non-manga example. Look how little talk of Game of Thrones there is now, despite being a juggernaut with infinite memes and talk just a few years back.
They'll be remembered for their waifus by dedicated men, but likely just them. That's why I'm the only person who even remembers Busou Renkin for my scar faced waifu.
In the case of game of thrones though I would say that’s just because the retards in charge of it let it get so shitty and made such a god-awful ending it essentially killed the franchise in it’s tracks. It would still be huge if they’d stuck the landing even a little bit.
Also, weird that you chose two mecha anime that people forgot that also happen to reference Maurice Maeterlinck (full disclosure, I have not actually watched RahXephon).
I dropped both of them because RahXephon felt so generic, and the MC of Eureka Seven (Renton Thurston, a name so over the top I never forgot it) was so unlikable I couldn't physically stand him.
And honestly they were the first that came to mind that weren't Gundam so that was coincidental, though interesting. Well those two and Vandread.
I went yesterday to look at the lineup of new releases in manga and anime and roughly a quarter of the titles were isekai. Some of which don't even need to be isekai to work as stories, and only are isekai because of escapism on the part of the mangaka.
Quarter is not that much. That means there is more that is not isekai. So whats the issue?
It sounds here that you are complaining that isekai even exists. There are people who want that stuff. Leave them to it. Things not isekai are being made and you are not forced to read isekai.
It sounds here that you are complaining that isekai even exists.
Somewhat, yes.
There's something perversely wrong about isekai as a genre. I think it belies a loss of both imagination and optimism, that we can't merely have a setting, that it must be contextualized in relation to our world.
I hate it in the same way that I hate how Battlestar Galactica ended in the present. It's like they took "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and then felt obliged to say "no, really, see?".
I'm not disagreeing on that. I'm just saying that's pretty normal for the industry.
I was there in the 00s when every god damned thing was trying to be the next slice of life hit, where the escapism was the mangaka wanted his harem of cute girls that all loved his generic protag.
Many of which had interesting ideas somewhere, but attached the cliche parts anyway. One of those interesting ones was Oreimo, which became its own genre of "slice of life harem, but incest is the center."
I'm fine with isekai stories. They have purpose, they have a role in the "ecosystem" of storytelling.
But purpose is the keyword there. They need one. And not just tangentially. Like, to use the Quartet:
Overlord doesn't need to be an Isekai, or at least, a double-isekai. Re:Zero doesn't need to be an isekai. KonoSuba does need to be an isekai. Youjo Senki does need to be an isekai. You can have a tale of a misplaced lichlord without needing him to be a teenage gamer, he was isekai'd twice after all. You can have a hopeless, reviving, witch-"blessed" romantic without needing ten introductory seconds of "so I was at a convenience store". But Kazuma uses his Earthly knowledge to his advantage, and the fact others also isekai'd there shaped literally the entire setting from ancient history to present. And Tanya uses Earthly knowledge all the time, her application of modern morals in war is why she has the title "The Evil".
Digimon the isekai makes sense. There are NO humans there, their existence disrupts the world in notable ways. Inuyasha the isekai makes sense, both worlds play active roles in the plot. Hamefura: The entire plot is made by the MC trying to actively derail that very plot.
On the other extremes... Interspecies Reviewers is technically an isekai anime. But no named character is an isekai'd character, they just exist in the background lore. The sole reason it's an isekai, is to mock our world. Not really needed, but it is a comedy series so leniency. And the other opposite extreme, some people call Goblin Slayer an isekai anime. It has the walled town with the adventuring guild and the river going two-thirds past center through it. Characters have random OP powers, and arbitrary guild ranks, and the MC is powerful because he does SCIENCE! ...Not an isekai. Didn't need to be. Fits the mould PERFECTLY... And isn't. Wonderful. Amazing. Deserves more viewers just for that trait alone.
What talent? It's isekai.
The current japanese economic dystopia is so disappointing. What happened to the 80's? The glorious dystopian visions, the likes of Dominion or Akira? All mangaka can come up with is "I woke up and I wasn't here".
Like, grow a pair and try something bold. Drop some asteroids, flood Sagami Bay like YKK, have youkai blow up some reactors like Arjuna... just do SOMETHING besides more frigging isekai.
I mean, every medium has its generic genre designed to sell to without rocking the boat too much, with the subverting that being the only ones anyone remembers. Shield Hero will probably be the only isekai people remember in the next decade for being the opposite of escapist fantasy (at first).
The same way everyone remembers Evangelion, but not forgotten mecha like Rahxephon or Eureka Seven.
Re zero and konosuba will live on, even if only through the sheer volume of memes.
Memes are not as long lasting as you'd think. Ask Haruhi who went from a billion dollar IP to completely dead over in a few years.
Or for a non-manga example. Look how little talk of Game of Thrones there is now, despite being a juggernaut with infinite memes and talk just a few years back.
They'll be remembered for their waifus by dedicated men, but likely just them. That's why I'm the only person who even remembers Busou Renkin for my scar faced waifu.
In the case of game of thrones though I would say that’s just because the retards in charge of it let it get so shitty and made such a god-awful ending it essentially killed the franchise in it’s tracks. It would still be huge if they’d stuck the landing even a little bit.
cries in coralian
Also, weird that you chose two mecha anime that people forgot that also happen to reference Maurice Maeterlinck (full disclosure, I have not actually watched RahXephon).
I dropped both of them because RahXephon felt so generic, and the MC of Eureka Seven (Renton Thurston, a name so over the top I never forgot it) was so unlikable I couldn't physically stand him.
And honestly they were the first that came to mind that weren't Gundam so that was coincidental, though interesting. Well those two and Vandread.
I went yesterday to look at the lineup of new releases in manga and anime and roughly a quarter of the titles were isekai. Some of which don't even need to be isekai to work as stories, and only are isekai because of escapism on the part of the mangaka.
Quarter is not that much. That means there is more that is not isekai. So whats the issue?
It sounds here that you are complaining that isekai even exists. There are people who want that stuff. Leave them to it. Things not isekai are being made and you are not forced to read isekai.
Somewhat, yes.
There's something perversely wrong about isekai as a genre. I think it belies a loss of both imagination and optimism, that we can't merely have a setting, that it must be contextualized in relation to our world.
I hate it in the same way that I hate how Battlestar Galactica ended in the present. It's like they took "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and then felt obliged to say "no, really, see?".
I'm not disagreeing on that. I'm just saying that's pretty normal for the industry.
I was there in the 00s when every god damned thing was trying to be the next slice of life hit, where the escapism was the mangaka wanted his harem of cute girls that all loved his generic protag.
Many of which had interesting ideas somewhere, but attached the cliche parts anyway. One of those interesting ones was Oreimo, which became its own genre of "slice of life harem, but incest is the center."
I'm fine with isekai stories. They have purpose, they have a role in the "ecosystem" of storytelling.
But purpose is the keyword there. They need one. And not just tangentially. Like, to use the Quartet:
Overlord doesn't need to be an Isekai, or at least, a double-isekai. Re:Zero doesn't need to be an isekai. KonoSuba does need to be an isekai. Youjo Senki does need to be an isekai. You can have a tale of a misplaced lichlord without needing him to be a teenage gamer, he was isekai'd twice after all. You can have a hopeless, reviving, witch-"blessed" romantic without needing ten introductory seconds of "so I was at a convenience store". But Kazuma uses his Earthly knowledge to his advantage, and the fact others also isekai'd there shaped literally the entire setting from ancient history to present. And Tanya uses Earthly knowledge all the time, her application of modern morals in war is why she has the title "The Evil".
Digimon the isekai makes sense. There are NO humans there, their existence disrupts the world in notable ways. Inuyasha the isekai makes sense, both worlds play active roles in the plot. Hamefura: The entire plot is made by the MC trying to actively derail that very plot.
On the other extremes... Interspecies Reviewers is technically an isekai anime. But no named character is an isekai'd character, they just exist in the background lore. The sole reason it's an isekai, is to mock our world. Not really needed, but it is a comedy series so leniency. And the other opposite extreme, some people call Goblin Slayer an isekai anime. It has the walled town with the adventuring guild and the river going two-thirds past center through it. Characters have random OP powers, and arbitrary guild ranks, and the MC is powerful because he does SCIENCE! ...Not an isekai. Didn't need to be. Fits the mould PERFECTLY... And isn't. Wonderful. Amazing. Deserves more viewers just for that trait alone.
It's probably easier when your country is doing well.
Japan has been a stagnant downturn economy as long as I've been alive.
Mangaka making quips about not being able to get jobs was already cliche when Excel Saga hit print and that was 1996.